Tuesday, July 13, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 307

Title: Next instant, the luckless mate, so full of furious life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc in his descent, fell into the sea at the distance of about fifty yards. Not a chip of the boat was harmed, nor a hair of any oarsman's head; but the mate for ever sank.

4 comments:

Great found paper choice! I also love the simplicity of the image--all the white space really helps convey the sense that the mate is helplessly airborne. He really does seem like he's been flung up high into the air--it's both a sad and yet strangely amusing image all at once.

Thank you very much Rudy. "Sad" and "strangely amusing" are more or less exactly what I was going for, so it is wonderful to read this. I like the double meaning implied by "The Ascent of Man" as the mate is both flung and killed.

Thank you Steve. I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull this off since it has always been extremely difficult for me to convey any sense of motion in my art. Somehow I think this actually worked, although the rope was helpful in showing that.